Last week the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique made its announcement: Dong Fangxiao will have her individual Olympic results from Sydney 2000 nullified (the FIG has yet to rule on the team bronze won by China). She was found to be 14-years-old at the 2000 Olympic Games, two years short of the age requirement of 16. Teammate Yang Yun, who later admitted she was also only 14 at the time, will retain her bronze medal on bars, due to insufficient proof that she was underage.

Dong Fangxiao, 2000 Olympic Games, NBC Fluff

Dong Fangxiao, 2000 Olympic Games, Floor Exercise

This scandal is the third in a string of blemishes marking the women’s competition in Sydney. The all-around was marred first by the vault setting error, and then by all-around champion Andreea Raducan’s positive test for pseudoephedrine (no longer a banned substance).

Cheaters do need to be punished, but what is the appropriate punishment in this case? Is this really fair to strip Dong and her teammates of their medal when she was just a young gymnast who likely played no role in the deceit? And 10 years later, it’s hardly fair to punish the new generation of gymnasts by banning them from FIG competitions, as happened to North Korea in the early 1990s. (Then again, that’s not to say that this kind of cheating is a thing of the past…we all know of the controversy surrounding He Kexin and Deng Linlin at the 2008 Olympic Games!)

And what about all the other gymnasts who have later admitted to being underage at major competitions? If Dong and Yang’s cases were only investigated because they fell in the 10-year time frame, does that not seem a bit arbitrary? What about looking into the real birth dates of other gymnasts who have admitted being underage, most notably Romanians stars Gina Gogean, Sabina Cojocar, Alexandra Marinescu, Daniela Silivas and Ecaterina Szabo? (I find it amusing that Bela Karolyi was one of the most vocal critics during the age controversy in Beijing!)

A Brief History of Underage Gymnastics

Unfortunately, it’s the countries that play by the rules who suffer most when others cheat. Canada had some wonderful junior gymnasts in 2008 (most notably Charlotte Mackie, Peng Peng Lee and Brittany Rogers) and along with Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, Kristina Vaculik and Nansy Damianova, we most likely would have qualified a full team to the Olympics had they been allowed to contribute routines at the qualifying World Championships the year before.

Perhaps the best solution is a proactive one: birth dates for gymnasts should be checked carefully by the FIG before they start competing internationally, and national federations should be warned that there will be more severe sanctions should they try to cheat.

Part of me thinks there shouldn’t be an age limit at all, thus eliminating this dilemma, but I acknowledge the importance of protecting young children from the pressures of international competition. Raising the age limit from 15 to 16, as the FIG did in 1997, might have actually increased the incidence of cheating since many female gymnasts are often in top form well before age 16.

I feel sorry for Dong Fangxiao since she is embroiled in this mess that she surely didn’t create. It’s also a shame that her career was cut short due to her hip dysplasia. Stay tuned for the FIG’s ruling on China’s team bronze medal….

In October, I had the opportunity to attend the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships, held at the beautiful O2 Arena in London, England.  I attended four sessions: women’s qualifications, women’s all-around, and both days of event finals.  Gymbit has asked me to share some of my observations from the stands….

(more…)

The 2009 World Championships in London have drawn to a close, and I must say I was extremely impressed with the quality of the gymnastics in this post-Olympic rebuilding year. This competition offered the first glimpse into the next Olympiad, which will culminate with the 2012 Olympic Games in the same O2 Arena.

Kohei Uchimura (JPN) was the undisputed king of the all-around, winning by a 2.575 margin. His form is simply impeccable, especially on the twisting skills. Even in slow-motion, you can see that his ankles stay together perfectly during this Yurchenko 2.5-twist. The direction was superb as well, as he landed square on the line. Note how he spots the ground while heading into the last half-twist.

(more…)

Over the years, North Korea has produced many fantastic gymnasts. Kim Gwang Suk scored a Perfect 10 on the uneven bars on her way to the gold medal at the 1991 World Championships. This was the last Perfect 10 the world will ever see at a World Championships due to the current open-ended Code of Points.

The highlight of Kim’s routine was the Tkatchev-Counter Kim combination at 0:11 and the lightning-fast 1.5 pirouette to Jaeger at 0:24. (more…)

Quick, who were the Olympic All-Around Champions in 2000? Alexei Nemov and, um, Simona Amanar? It always takes me an extra second to remember that Amanar’s name is officially at the top of the list. With 50% of the field competing on a vault that was set 5 cm too low, the playing field was hardly fair. American Elise Ray suffered a scary crash when she missed the vault entirely in warm-ups, and then proceeded to fall on both vaults during the biggest competition of her life. “It really scared me. I felt something was wrong but I didn’t know what it was. I was so disappointed. It carried over to the next three events. I can’t believe a setting could be wrong at the Olympic Games.” (source: International GYMNAST magazine, November 2000)

(more…)

The inaugural Montreal World Cup was a great success in the men’s field. Seasoned veterans such as Razvan Selariu (ROM), Krisztian Berki (HUN) and Daniel Popescu (ROM) won Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse and Vault, respectively. Danny Rodrigues (FRA), a finalist at the Beijing Olympics on Rings, won this event in Montreal with two Victorian Crosses!

(more…)

Gymbyte and I have just returned from L’International Gymnix 2009, and it was an amazing weekend in Montreal! This was the inaugural year as a World Cup event and it was a great success, especially on the men’s side where many of the world’s top competitors were present.

The Junior Cup portion of the competition included female gymnasts from Canada, France, Russia and the USA. The International Cup female competitors competed alongside the juniors, with gymnasts representing Canada, Australia, USA, France and Peru.

(more…)

Hello everyone! I am pleased to see that I’m getting a fair amount of traffic to my blog, and I want to give a special shout out to my friends from St. Catharines, Tallahassee, West Hollywood and New York City!

There are a few important tidbits of news circulating in the gymnastics world this week. To begin with, it has come to light that former gymnast Emilia Eberle (now known as Trudi Kollar) and choreographer Geza Pozsar are writing a book describing the alleged physical and emotional abuse they suffered or witnessed in Romania at the hands of Bela and Marta Karolyi. They have American Dominique Moceanu in their corner, too. She has been speaking out against the Karolyis’ training methods since before the Beijing Olympics, and has now encouraged others to do the same. More to follow when the tell-all book is eventually published….

(more…)